Benefits

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the financial impact on people on low incomes of uprating most cash benefits and tax credits by one per cent from April 2013 rather than in line with inflation.

Lord Freud: For 2013/14, the main rates of working-age benefits, statutory payments and tax credits were up-rated by one per cent in the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2013. The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Act 2013 provided for the one per cent increase to apply for 2014/15 and 2015/16. Both of these were accompanied by Impact Assessments.
	As part of his ongoing public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010 to monitor impacts on “protected groups”, the Secretary of State continues to monitor the impacts of the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Act 2013 in light of any changes to the underlying rate of inflation. The underlying rate of inflation for increases in 2014/15 is similar to that forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility and used in the Impact Assessment. It is therefore likely that the impacts on affected households will be broadly similar to those detailed in the Impact Assessment.

British Library

Lord Quirk: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to mitigate any reduction in staffing provision, acquisitions, and essential services in the British Library resulting from reductions in funding since 2010.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has an arm’s length relationship with its sponsored bodies such as the British Library, and operational and management decisions are therefore a matter for the Board and Executive. In the Spending Review of 2010, funding for the British Library was protected by limiting resource cuts to 15% in real terms over four years, and at the Spending Round of 2013, the 5% reduction in capital and resource budgets was below average. The Chancellor signalled in his 2014 Budget announcement that there would not be any further reductions to departmental spending at this time, so that sponsored bodies will maintain current levels of planned spending in 2014/15 and 2015/16.

Energy: Electricity

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will act to reduce the unit price paid by those consumers who are able to purchase electricity only from a supplier because they are not on mains gas supply and so cannot benefit from a dual fuel tariff.

Baroness Verma: The decision to offer a dual fuel discount to customers who take a gas and electricity supply from one supplier is a commercial matter for the companies concerned. The discount reflects savings made by the company by combining administrative costs of providing the two separate supplies. Dual fuel discounts typically range from £10 to £25 per year. It would not be appropriate for Government to intervene by requiring suppliers to reduce electricity prices for just one specific segment of customers.

Government Departments: Management Information Reports

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which official, with what job title, is responsible and accountable for departmental management information in the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: Within the Department for Communities and Local Government the official who holds responsibility for departmental management information is Andrew Campbell, Director General for Finance and Corporate Services.

Government Departments: Management Information Reports

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which official, with what job title, is responsible and accountable for departmental management information in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Helen Carrier (Head of Strategy, Resourcing and Governance), is responsible and accountable for departmental management information in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Housing

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether data on the provision of discretionary housing payments by local authorities are collected centrally.

Lord Freud: The Department asks local authorities to provide data on their use of
	Discretionary Housing Payments on a twice yearly basis. Information regarding April to September 2013 can be found at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268411/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-dec13.pdf
	The Department is currently gathering and quality assuring information regarding end of year spend from local authorities for 2013/14.

Internet: Broadband

Lord Condon: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the progress of the roll-out of high speed broadband, and in particular of the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The Government’s programme is making good progress and has now made available superfast broadband to over 0.5 million premises in the UK. The pace of deployment has increased from 10,000 premises a week gaining availability of superfast broadband in early 2014 to 20,000 a week now and this will increase to 40,000 per week by the Summer of 2014.
	With respect to impact on SME’s, the Broadband Impact Study—Impact Report, an expert report by analysts SQW (with Cambridge Econometrics), revealed the Government’s investment in superfast broadband will deliver a major boost to the UK economy; for every £1 the government is investing in broadband, the UK economy will benefit by £20 by 2024. It also demonstrated that the benefits will be shared across the UK, helping the rebalancing of our economy; approximately 89 per cent of the benefits will be in areas outside London and the South East of England with rural areas set to benefit most.
	The report focused on impacts of mass market broadband services—i.e. “affordable broadband” for SMEs and households—and estimated that by 2024, net annual GVA impacts attributable to intervention include:
	• £0.8 billion from safeguarding local enterprise employment,• £5 billion from productivity growth for broadband- using firms,• £0.3 billion from improved teleworker productivity, and • £0.2 billion from increased labour force participation.
	The majority of these benefits will be to SMEs, and over half to rural areas.

NHS: Contracts

Lord Owen: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many contracts for National Health Service services were awarded between (1) October 2012 and March 2013, (2) April 2013 and September 2013, and (3) October
	2013 and March 2014, to (a) National Health Service bodies, (b) third sector organisations, and (c) any other organisations; what was the value of each of those contracts; and what they estimate will be the number and value of such contracts in the same six-month periods in 2020.

Earl Howe: The information requested on contract awards is not held centrally.
	Individual commissioners (clinical commissioning groups and NHS England) are responsible for taking fair and transparent decisions on the award of contracts to the providers most capable of meeting the needs of their populations and providing value for money.
	It is therefore not possible to provide an estimate centrally on the number and value of contracts that will be awarded to different types of provider in 2020.

Planning

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the Forest of Dean’s protection from disposal by the Forestry Act 1967, they will (1) review plans by the Homes and Communities Agency to submit a planning application for a major development of the Cinderford Northern Quarter, and (2) ensure it is subject to a public access agreement until 2032.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: The application is currently being considered by Forest of Dean District Council and is still out to public consultation, which ends on 19 May 2014. It is not the policy of the Government to consider intervening in planning applications at such an early stage.
	The Secretary of State is very selective about intervening in applications and will only call in an application if it raises issues of more than local importance as a “call in” takes the planning decision away from the elected local council.

Railways: High Speed 2

Lord Berkeley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the lack of planned rail connection between HS1 and HS2 would mean that HS2 could not be designated as part of the TEN-T network.

Baroness Kramer: Removal of the HS1 link proposal should not affect the designation of HS2. Commission Regulation EU No 1315/2013 includes the maps which define the TEN-T network. Phase 1 of HS2 is on the TEN-T Core Network as it is expected to be completed before 2030, the target date in the TEN-T Regulation for the Core Network. Phase 2, the ‘Y’ section, is on the Comprehensive Network as it will not be completed until after this date.